Wednesday, August 27, 2014

North Carolina Campus Compact's 2014-2015 AmeriCorps VISTA cohort has started off their year
of service with lots of learning!

VISTA Breakout-session

To kick-off their year, all 15 of our new VISTAs attended the VISTA member Pre-Service Orientation (PSO) in Atlanta, GA for four days starting August 4. They discussed causes of poverty, how to make heads-or-tails of their VADS, and met VISTAs from across the country. On August 6, the Compact's VISTA Leader Carla Davis led an evening session where the new members had the chance to gather as a group for the first time (but certainly not the last)! The cohort discussed what knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to be successful in their year of service, and all of the resources that North Carolina Campus Compact and our Host Sites provide, to ensure VISTA success.

VISTAs get the chance to discussproject goals with Supervisors

While PSO brought together new VISTA members from projects throughout the Southeast, NC Campus Compact held our own Orientation just for our VISTAs and their Supervisors. This was the first time supervisors and VISTAs in their second year of service joined the incoming VISTA group, and there was lots of energy in the room as we learned about communication styles, MBTI's from Allan Mueller of Guilford College, and went over the Nuts & Bolts of the NC Campus Compact VISTA program. After lunch, we broke out into two groups, one for VISTAs and one with Supervisors, to have smaller conversations about the coming year.

The VISTAs brainstormed up a VISTA Survival Guide, and the five returning VISTAs shared lessons-learned in their first year, which, if we had to boil it down to one word would be: COMMUNICATION. The Supervisor breakout session allowed supervisors from different projects to discuss expectations of both the VISTAs and the project.

The day ended with supervisors and VISTAs alike eager to return to their projects and get started!

Now that they have had the chance to settle in to their new service positions, we would like to introduce you!

Disclaimer

Any opinions expressed on the VISTA VIEW blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views, opinions, or policies of the AmeriCorps VISTA program or the Corporation for National and Community Service.